The present invention relates generally to computer telephony, and more particularly, to an agent-based multimedia communication architecture for integrating circuit switched telephony systems and IP-based packet switching systems while providing scalability, programmability and interoperability.
Telephony systems generally rely on conventional circuit switched network architectures. However, the current technology trend is to move from these conventional circuit switched telephony systems to IP-based packet switching systems. Given this current trend, it is necessary to develop the next generation multimedia communication system that supports a telephony call model while taking advantage of both of these technologies.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an integrated multimedia communication architecture that supports a telephony call model as well as IP-based data communication sessions. The architecture should further provide a modular and simplified service model that supports rapid development, installation and provisioning of services. The simplified service model is based on dynamically upgradeable service logic programming modules that can be remotely administered. To support such dynamically upgradeable service logic requires innovation in call processing architecture, especially in how to provide a highly integrated and yet decomposable module interconnection interfaces. In addition, the agent based multimedia communication architecture should utilize an unified shared object repository access interface to support the storage and synchronization of call objects and service parameters. The new object model provides XML based interface for object caching and distributed repositories. Based on such an open object interface, the system is scaleable as well as easy to operate and maintain.
The multimedia communication architecture of the present invention addresses these issue by adopting the emerging trend of an agent-based system design. According to one aspect of the invention, an agent-based telephony system is provided for establishing a call between two or more telephony devices interconnected through an automated call dispatch server. The automated call dispatch server includes a call control agent for processing call requests; a call resource management agent in communication with the call control agent for allocating and controlling the resources needed to establish a call between telephony devices; and a resource control agent in communication with the call resource management agent for providing a hardware-dependent interface to the telephony devices.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, its objects and advantages refer to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings.